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Modern Travel

Freshwater Transit seeks to develop public transportation systems in Detroit.

Esther Allweiss Ingber I Contributing Writer

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local riders to get around
since SMART (Suburban
Mobility Authority for Regional
Transportation) stopped running
buses on Scotia.
When the Jewish Community
Center in Oak Park closes at the
end of August, Turkel said public
transportation could bring non-
driving members to the JCC in West
Bloomfield. SMART Route 405 lets
off near the JCC on Drake, just west
of Maple, he said.
Picking up the bus, though, sound-
ed daunting as Turkel rattled off the
different bus routes people would
have to take to catch their 405 con-
nection. Ultimately, the 405 doesn't
help evening visitors to the JCC
because the last bus leaves Maple-
Drake around 6:40 p.m. There's also
no Sunday service.
In New York and San Francisco,
cities with efficient mass transit,
moving around town is not the chal-
lenge it presents in Metro Detroit —
but does transit have to stay like this?
Does anyone care?
Freshwater Transit Solutions cares
and wants to provide solutions. The
specialty transit firm in Detroit's
Grand Circus Park district is intent
on improving public transportation
in our region.
"A city is only as good as its abil-
ity to attract the best talent to propel
it forward:' said Stephen Maiseloff,
Members of the Freshwater Transit Solutions team: Jessica Shaw and Julianna
Freshwater Transit vice president.
Tschirhart, both of Ferndale, and Maria Urquidi of Detroit; seated, Erika Linenfelser and
"Modern transportation is the cost
Stephen Maiseloff, both of Detroit.
of entry for cities vying for post-
grads to plant their roots and start a
State University, where he played tennis
non-existent transit points.
career:'
Tom Choske, a former staffer for ex-
and spent "oodles of quality time at the
Maiseloff is one of them himself. Raised MSU Hillel:'
U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke, and Maiseloff
in Southfield and West Bloomfield, he's a
Maiseloff, whose sisters are Alyssa and
co-founded Freshwater Transit Solutions.
product of suburbia, where the automobile Jen, became a bar mitzvah at Southfield-
Choske, company president, directs a
is king. He developed his passion for get-
based Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
team that includes researcher Julianna
ting people from here to there after expe-
"I had a surface level of understanding
Tschirhart, project coordinator Danny
Baum, principal planner Adrianna Jordan,
riencing Chicago's enviable transit system.
of transit services, said Maiseloff, who
returned home from Chicago in 2012. "I
He lived in the city while completing an
operations specialist Steve Hamelin, design
specialist Erika Linenfelser, and special
MBA degree at Loyola University.
wanted to explore real opportunities."
The son of David and Ellen Maiseloff,
He networked with former Detroiter
contributors Jessica Shaw and Maria
Urquidi. As VP, Maiseloff is in charge of
Stephen went to Hillel Day School in
Neil Greenberg of Washington, D.C.
Farmington Hills for 10 years and gradu-
Greenberg, with a background in transit
business development.
ated from West Bloomfield High School.
applications in various cities, once devel-
Freshwater is not a political organiza-
He majored in psychology at Michigan
oped a real-looking Detroit city map with
tion. The company presents itself as "hav-

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ing the resources it takes to assemble a
comprehensive transit strategy — from the
plan to the campaign to the implementa-
tion:'

First Project
With the expertise to work with multi-
modal systems, including road, rail and
water, the team's first major project, for the
Detroit RiverFront Conservancy (DRFC),
was developing a feasibility study on
modes of transportation for the Detroit
RiverWalk. Expect to see a water taxi
service and trolley bus service operating
soon along the Detroit RiverWalk, which
eventually will extend 51/2 miles from the
Ambassador Bridge to Gabriel Richard
Park, east of the Belle Isle Bridge.
"A group like ours doesn't necessarily
exist in other cities:' Maiseloff said. "The
Riverfront Conservancy didn't have its
own planning arm, so they liked the mix
we brought, including branding and mar-
keting:'
Speaking of Downtown, he noted that
public transportation to Belle Isle cur-
rently ends near the bridge at Jefferson,
and also at Grand Boulevard.
"The Riverfront and Belle Isle are not
at capacity:' he said. "We want to fill those
places, making them easier to approach so
people stay longer:'
One solution for Belle Isle could be a
bus making a loop around the island, as
designed in the feasibility study for the
DRFC.
Maiseloff and others concerned with
Detroit's future are eagerly awaiting the
M-1 RAIL Streetcar line, a commuter
line that will link Downtown Detroit to
Midtown. Construction of the tracks on
Woodward Avenue began in July 2014; the
project is anticipated to be completed in
late 2016.
M-1 will provide "frequent, higher-
quality transit as one piece of the much
broader system that's needed:' said
Megan Owens, executive director of
Transportation Riders United (TRU). The
nonprofit is dedicated to improving transit
through education, advocacy and engage-
ment in the greater Detroit region.
The streetcar line will "reintroduce peo-
ple to transit and what transit could be:'
said Owens, who also serves on the M-1
Advisory Council.

Modern Travel on page 10

May 14 • 2015